Culture Change RX

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In this episode, Sue interviews Michelle Franklin, the CEO of Sullivan County Community Hospital, about their journey to developing leaders in their organization. Michelle shares how they started their leadership development efforts in earnest after experiencing disappointing employee engagement survey results. They implemented leader training which focused on core leadership practices such as improving communication, one-on-one employee rounding, and interdepartmental collaboration. The organization has seen a transformation in their culture and engagement levels, and they have received awards for staff engagement. Michelle emphasizes the importance of regular leadership training and creating a culture of accountability. She also mentions the value of relationship building and the softer side benefits of leadership development.

• Investing in leadership development has both measurable and intangible benefits, including improved staff engagement and a positive organizational culture.
• Effective communication, including one-on-one rounding and interdepartmental collaboration, is key to building strong relationships and solving problems.
• Creating a culture of accountability and setting clear expectations for leaders helps drive performance and results; these are aided by an ongoing leadership development process.

The Virtual Patient Experience Boot Camp is designed for healthcare leaders and team members involved in patient experience improvement, communication, quality, culture, and organizational change, including:

• CEOs, COOs, and CNOs
• Patient experience leaders and improvement team members
• Nursing and department directors and s

Hi! I’m Sue Tetzlaff. I’m a culture and execution strategist for small and rural healthcare organizations - helping them to be the provider and employer-of-choice so they can keep care local and margins strong.

For decades, I’ve worked with healthcare organizations to navigate the people-side of healthcare, the part that can make or break your results. What I’ve learned is this: culture is not a soft thing. It’s the hardest thing, and it determines everything.

When you’re ready to take your culture to the next level, here are three ways I can help you:

1. Listen to the Culture Change RX Podcast
Every week, I share conversations with leaders who are transforming healthcare workplaces and strategies for keeping teams engaged, patients loyal, and margins healthy.

2. Subscribe to our Email Newsletter
Get practical tips, frameworks, and leadership tools delivered right to your inbox—plus exclusive content you won’t find on the podcast.
📩 Subscribe here

3. Break through to the next level of greatness in your organization with help from my team and me.
When you’re ready to be the provider and employer-of-choice, we’ll help you implement proven frameworks that strengthen culture, improve experience and ensure your organization thrives.
You can email me at [email protected] and put “BREAKTHROUGH” in the subject line and I’ll get you all the details.

Send us a Message

Jane McLeod, co-founder of Capstone, shares five of her top 10 “leadership life hacks” borne out of her 40+ year career.

• An organization becomes unstoppable when front-line leaders join together on one team as a cohesive unit that works together to achieve common goals.
• Beyond all the projects and management tasks, continually building strong relationships is essential for effective leadership.
• Growth happens when we reflect on and own up to mistakes and then apologize when necessary, fostering trust and authenticity.
• Spending time with employees outside of work helps create a supportive and engaging work environment.
• Leaders should avoid taking on other people's problems and instead empower their team members to find solutions; in other words, “don’t take the monkey, gently hand it back.”

In this episode, Sue is joined by Jane McLeod. Together they co-founded Capstone Leadership Solutions, in 2012 after two decades of working together in their local community hospital. As Jane approaches her upcoming retirement after an amazing career in healthcare, she shares five of her top 10 “leadership life hacks.” These hacks have a significant impact on culture, as they promote collaboration, trust, vulnerability, and personal growth. By implementing these tactics, leaders can create a positive and empowering work environment.

The Virtual Patient Experience Boot Camp is designed for healthcare leaders and team members involved in patient experience improvement, communication, quality, culture, and organizational change, including:

• CEOs, COOs, and CNOs
• Patient experience leaders and improvement team members
• Nursing and department directors and s

Hi! I’m Sue Tetzlaff. I’m a culture and execution strategist for small and rural healthcare organizations - helping them to be the provider and employer-of-choice so they can keep care local and margins strong.

For decades, I’ve worked with healthcare organizations to navigate the people-side of healthcare, the part that can make or break your results. What I’ve learned is this: culture is not a soft thing. It’s the hardest thing, and it determines everything.

When you’re ready to take your culture to the next level, here are three ways I can help you:

1. Listen to the Culture Change RX Podcast
Every week, I share conversations with leaders who are transforming healthcare workplaces and strategies for keeping teams engaged, patients loyal, and margins healthy.

2. Subscribe to our Email Newsletter
Get practical tips, frameworks, and leadership tools delivered right to your inbox—plus exclusive content you won’t find on the podcast.
📩 Subscribe here

3. Break through to the next level of greatness in your organization with help from my team and me.
When you’re ready to be the provider and employer-of-choice, we’ll help you implement proven frameworks that strengthen culture, improve experience and ensure your organization thrives.
You can email me at [email protected] and put “BREAKTHROUGH” in the subject line and I’ll get you all the details.

Send us a Message

In this Culture Byte solo episode, Sue discusses the to-dos and not-to-dos for creating a learning culture in healthcare organizations, specifically focusing on leadership development. She emphasizes the need for internal ownership of the learning system and the involvement of a steering team to develop and onboard leaders. Sue also highlights the importance of continuous learning and the role of anchor events and the designation and development of internal experts in the process. She stresses that leadership training should not be optional and that leaders must be accountable and supported to implement the takeaways from the training. Overall, Sue provides insights and tips for creating an effective leadership learning culture.

• Creating a learning culture in healthcare organizations requires internal ownership of the learning system.
• A steering team consisting of senior and frontline leaders can take ownership and oversight of the processes for developing and onboarding leaders.
• Effective leadership development is a continuous process, not an episodic event.
• Certain leadership training events and activities should be deemed mandatory and leaders can be accountable for implementing the takeaways when they know which takeaways are deemed mandatory versus optional.
• Planning an annual organizational leadership development plan and setting an annual calendar for training events can help ensure proper preparation, participation, and commitment.

Given that continuous learning is the backbone of effective healthcare leadership, organizations are going to want to avoid these common pitfalls in their leadership training efforts

The Virtual Patient Experience Boot Camp is designed for healthcare leaders and team members involved in patient experience improvement, communication, quality, culture, and organizational change, including:

• CEOs, COOs, and CNOs
• Patient experience leaders and improvement team members
• Nursing and department directors and s

Hi! I’m Sue Tetzlaff. I’m a culture and execution strategist for small and rural healthcare organizations - helping them to be the provider and employer-of-choice so they can keep care local and margins strong.

For decades, I’ve worked with healthcare organizations to navigate the people-side of healthcare, the part that can make or break your results. What I’ve learned is this: culture is not a soft thing. It’s the hardest thing, and it determines everything.

When you’re ready to take your culture to the next level, here are three ways I can help you:

1. Listen to the Culture Change RX Podcast
Every week, I share conversations with leaders who are transforming healthcare workplaces and strategies for keeping teams engaged, patients loyal, and margins healthy.

2. Subscribe to our Email Newsletter
Get practical tips, frameworks, and leadership tools delivered right to your inbox—plus exclusive content you won’t find on the podcast.
📩 Subscribe here

3. Break through to the next level of greatness in your organization with help from my team and me.
When you’re ready to be the provider and employer-of-choice, we’ll help you implement proven frameworks that strengthen culture, improve experience and ensure your organization thrives.
You can email me at [email protected] and put “BREAKTHROUGH” in the subject line and I’ll get you all the details.

Send us a Message

In this episode, Sue Tetzlaff interviews Ben Davis, President and CEO at Glencoe Regional Health (GRH), about their newly launched Experience Initiative. Ben plans to be a quarterly guest on the podcast to chronicle the approach, progress, successes, and challenges of this initiative. During this first episode, Sue and Ben the early months of the partnership between Capstone and GRH centered around continually improving the employee experience, patient experience, and patient access. They also talk about the importance and role of employee-driven teams and the leadership team in driving the success of this change initiative. The conversation highlights the challenges of change and the need for data-informed decision making. They also discuss upcoming Experience Initiative events which include initial training on the initiative via all-employee training events and a 2-day leadership training.

• GRH’s Experience Initiative is centered around advancing their strategic priorities to improve the employee experience, patient experience, and patient access.
• Employee-driven teams are an important part of the Experience Initiative’s approach for involving frontline staff in decision making and driving change.
• Leadership also plays a crucial role in leading and supporting the changes that are part of the Experience Initiative.
• Data-informed decision making is essential to this initiative for identifying areas of opportunity and setting goals.
• The investment in leadership development, onboarding, and succession planning is important for the future success of the organization.
• Ben Davis, GRH’s CEO, plans to be a quarterly guest on the Culture Change RX podcast to chronicle the approach, progress, successes, and challenges of this initiative

Through their Experience Initiative, Glencoe Regional Health (GRH) is uniting leaders and employees on a pathway to executing strategies, evolving culture, and achieving goals.

The Virtual Patient Experience Boot Camp is designed for healthcare leaders and team members involved in patient experience improvement, communication, quality, culture, and organizational change, including:

• CEOs, COOs, and CNOs
• Patient experience leaders and improvement team members
• Nursing and department directors and s

Hi! I’m Sue Tetzlaff. I’m a culture and execution strategist for small and rural healthcare organizations - helping them to be the provider and employer-of-choice so they can keep care local and margins strong.

For decades, I’ve worked with healthcare organizations to navigate the people-side of healthcare, the part that can make or break your results. What I’ve learned is this: culture is not a soft thing. It’s the hardest thing, and it determines everything.

When you’re ready to take your culture to the next level, here are three ways I can help you:

1. Listen to the Culture Change RX Podcast
Every week, I share conversations with leaders who are transforming healthcare workplaces and strategies for keeping teams engaged, patients loyal, and margins healthy.

2. Subscribe to our Email Newsletter
Get practical tips, frameworks, and leadership tools delivered right to your inbox—plus exclusive content you won’t find on the podcast.
📩 Subscribe here

3. Break through to the next level of greatness in your organization with help from my team and me.
When you’re ready to be the provider and employer-of-choice, we’ll help you implement proven frameworks that strengthen culture, improve experience and ensure your organization thrives.
You can email me at [email protected] and put “BREAKTHROUGH” in the subject line and I’ll get you all the details.

Send us a Message

In this Culture Byte solo episode, Sue discusses the importance of trust between executives and employees in the workplace. She emphasizes the need for both task trust and relationship trust and highlights the impact of individual executive behavior on the perception of the entire team and organization. She explains how defining and delivering on plans and goals can build trust and maximize momentum in an organization. This episode highlights actual data from a hospital that adopted Capstone’s Framework for Achieving Great Results which resulted in significant improvements in many aspects of the organization, including year-after-year increases in the trust-related scores on their annual employee surveys.

Closing the “Say-Do Gap” happens as we define and deliver on plans and goals; and in doing so, we build trust and maximize momentum.

• "Trust in senior leadership went from 0.24 below the national average to 0.28 above in one year."
• "Employees' trust to act on their own without needing approvals increased from 0.09 above the national average to 0.42 above in five years."
• "Trust in the workplace aligns people around a purpose, embraces goals, and empowers collaboration."

The Virtual Patient Experience Boot Camp is designed for healthcare leaders and team members involved in patient experience improvement, communication, quality, culture, and organizational change, including:

• CEOs, COOs, and CNOs
• Patient experience leaders and improvement team members
• Nursing and department directors and s

Hi! I’m Sue Tetzlaff. I’m a culture and execution strategist for small and rural healthcare organizations - helping them to be the provider and employer-of-choice so they can keep care local and margins strong.

For decades, I’ve worked with healthcare organizations to navigate the people-side of healthcare, the part that can make or break your results. What I’ve learned is this: culture is not a soft thing. It’s the hardest thing, and it determines everything.

When you’re ready to take your culture to the next level, here are three ways I can help you:

1. Listen to the Culture Change RX Podcast
Every week, I share conversations with leaders who are transforming healthcare workplaces and strategies for keeping teams engaged, patients loyal, and margins healthy.

2. Subscribe to our Email Newsletter
Get practical tips, frameworks, and leadership tools delivered right to your inbox—plus exclusive content you won’t find on the podcast.
📩 Subscribe here

3. Break through to the next level of greatness in your organization with help from my team and me.
When you’re ready to be the provider and employer-of-choice, we’ll help you implement proven frameworks that strengthen culture, improve experience and ensure your organization thrives.
You can email me at [email protected] and put “BREAKTHROUGH” in the subject line and I’ll get you all the details.

Send us a Message

Sue welcomes back Courtney Kloehn, an experienced healthcare executive and Capstone coach, to the podcast. In this episode, Sue and Courtney introduce the 5P model of time, priority and energy management, which includes prioritizing, planning, performing, pausing, and pivoting. They emphasize the need to be thoughtful in how time is used and to focus on high-priority tasks. They also discuss the importance of starting and ending meetings on time, managing email effectively, and delegating tasks. The episode concludes with tips on restoring energy and the importance of building proactivity into processes.

• The 5P model of time, priority and energy management includes habits and tactics for prioritizing, planning, performing, pausing, and pivoting.
• Time is a precious non-renewable resource, and it is important to be thoughtful in how it is used.
• Starting and ending meetings on time shows respect for others' time and can improve productivity.
• Managing email effectively, setting turnaround times for responses, and clearing the inbox regularly can help reduce overwhelm.
• Delegating tasks and evaluating what can be put down can free up time for higher-priority activities.
• Restoring energy through self-care and setting boundaries is essential for maintaining productivity and well-being.

BONUS RESOURCES: to get the bonus resources mentioned in this episode email [email protected] and put 'PODCAST-TIME' in the subject line.

• Daily Planner
• FOCUS + ACTION Guide

The Virtual Patient Experience Boot Camp is designed for healthcare leaders and team members involved in patient experience improvement, communication, quality, culture, and organizational change, including:

• CEOs, COOs, and CNOs
• Patient experience leaders and improvement team members
• Nursing and department directors and s

Hi! I’m Sue Tetzlaff. I’m a culture and execution strategist for small and rural healthcare organizations - helping them to be the provider and employer-of-choice so they can keep care local and margins strong.

For decades, I’ve worked with healthcare organizations to navigate the people-side of healthcare, the part that can make or break your results. What I’ve learned is this: culture is not a soft thing. It’s the hardest thing, and it determines everything.

When you’re ready to take your culture to the next level, here are three ways I can help you:

1. Listen to the Culture Change RX Podcast
Every week, I share conversations with leaders who are transforming healthcare workplaces and strategies for keeping teams engaged, patients loyal, and margins healthy.

2. Subscribe to our Email Newsletter
Get practical tips, frameworks, and leadership tools delivered right to your inbox—plus exclusive content you won’t find on the podcast.
📩 Subscribe here

3. Break through to the next level of greatness in your organization with help from my team and me.
When you’re ready to be the provider and employer-of-choice, we’ll help you implement proven frameworks that strengthen culture, improve experience and ensure your organization thrives.
You can email me at [email protected] and put “BREAKTHROUGH” in the subject line and I’ll get you all the details.

Send us a Message

In this episode, Sue welcomes Teresa Feidt, a healthcare executive and Capstone coach, about patient experience and service cultures in healthcare. They discuss the importance of creating a positive service culture in healthcare organizations and share examples of exceptional service experiences. Teresa emphasizes the need for employee-driven teams, behavioral standards, and accountability in improving patient experience. They also discuss the role of service recovery and the importance of building relationships and trust within the organization. Overall, the conversation highlights the connection between employee experience and patient experience in creating a culture of excellence in healthcare.

Episode Insights and Takeaways

• Employee-driven teams, behavioral standards, and accountability are key elements in building a service culture.
• Service recovery plays a vital role in addressing and resolving issues when things go wrong.
• Building relationships and trust within the organization is essential for improving both employee and patient experience.
• Recognizing and appreciating employees for their efforts and providing continuous feedback are important in maintaining a positive service culture.
• Listening to patients and going above and beyond to meet their needs can create exceptional service experiences.

The Virtual Patient Experience Boot Camp is designed for healthcare leaders and team members involved in patient experience improvement, communication, quality, culture, and organizational change, including:

• CEOs, COOs, and CNOs
• Patient experience leaders and improvement team members
• Nursing and department directors and s

Hi! I’m Sue Tetzlaff. I’m a culture and execution strategist for small and rural healthcare organizations - helping them to be the provider and employer-of-choice so they can keep care local and margins strong.

For decades, I’ve worked with healthcare organizations to navigate the people-side of healthcare, the part that can make or break your results. What I’ve learned is this: culture is not a soft thing. It’s the hardest thing, and it determines everything.

When you’re ready to take your culture to the next level, here are three ways I can help you:

1. Listen to the Culture Change RX Podcast
Every week, I share conversations with leaders who are transforming healthcare workplaces and strategies for keeping teams engaged, patients loyal, and margins healthy.

2. Subscribe to our Email Newsletter
Get practical tips, frameworks, and leadership tools delivered right to your inbox—plus exclusive content you won’t find on the podcast.
📩 Subscribe here

3. Break through to the next level of greatness in your organization with help from my team and me.
When you’re ready to be the provider and employer-of-choice, we’ll help you implement proven frameworks that strengthen culture, improve experience and ensure your organization thrives.
You can email me at [email protected] and put “BREAKTHROUGH” in the subject line and I’ll get you all the details.

Send us a Message

In this solo Culture Byte episode, Sue shares a story about how setting goals helped a department change its culture and behaviors. The department focused on reducing absenteeism and created a social contract to achieve this goal. They recognized and rewarded employees with perfect attendance, tracked attendance on a graph, and even created a challenge for a whole pay period of perfect attendance. As a result, absenteeism decreased, patient satisfaction with cleanliness increased, overtime went down, and teamwork improved. 

Episode Insights and Takeaways

• Setting department goals with employees can create a social contract and drive behavior and culture change.
• Recognizing and rewarding positive behavior can motivate employees to achieve goals.
• Tracking progress and sharing data can help employees see the impact of their efforts.
• Creating mini-challenges can further engage employees in achieving goals.
• Setting goals that align with organizational objectives can lead to overall improvement in various areas.

The Virtual Patient Experience Boot Camp is designed for healthcare leaders and team members involved in patient experience improvement, communication, quality, culture, and organizational change, including:

• CEOs, COOs, and CNOs
• Patient experience leaders and improvement team members
• Nursing and department directors and s

Hi! I’m Sue Tetzlaff. I’m a culture and execution strategist for small and rural healthcare organizations - helping them to be the provider and employer-of-choice so they can keep care local and margins strong.

For decades, I’ve worked with healthcare organizations to navigate the people-side of healthcare, the part that can make or break your results. What I’ve learned is this: culture is not a soft thing. It’s the hardest thing, and it determines everything.

When you’re ready to take your culture to the next level, here are three ways I can help you:

1. Listen to the Culture Change RX Podcast
Every week, I share conversations with leaders who are transforming healthcare workplaces and strategies for keeping teams engaged, patients loyal, and margins healthy.

2. Subscribe to our Email Newsletter
Get practical tips, frameworks, and leadership tools delivered right to your inbox—plus exclusive content you won’t find on the podcast.
📩 Subscribe here

3. Break through to the next level of greatness in your organization with help from my team and me.
When you’re ready to be the provider and employer-of-choice, we’ll help you implement proven frameworks that strengthen culture, improve experience and ensure your organization thrives.
You can email me at [email protected] and put “BREAKTHROUGH” in the subject line and I’ll get you all the details.

Send us a Message

In this episode, Sue and Kevin discuss the connection between setting and achieving goals and organizational culture. They emphasize the importance of goal setting in driving culture change and employee engagement. Kevin shares his experience with implementing a goal cycle at Tamarack Health and how it has transformed the organization. They also discuss the role of accountability and ownership in the goal-setting process and the impact of goals on patient care. Overall, they highlight the need for a systematic approach to goal setting and the positive effects it can have on organizational culture.

The activities that make up a continuous goal cycle are major contributors to driving culture change, employee engagement, growth, and ultimately improvement in patient care.

Episode Insights and Takeaways

• A systematic approach to goal setting can provide clarity in mapping out organizational progress.
• Accountability and ownership are two sides of the same coin in goal setting. Accountability is important in the early stages, but ownership becomes more prevalent as the process matures.
• Goals involve all levels of the organization and foster a sense of collective responsibility.
• Goals are aligned with the organization's pillars of success and contribute to the overall mission and vision.
• Regular evaluation and measurement of goals are essential for continuous improvement as the actions are being taken toward achieving goals and bettering patient care.

The Virtual Patient Experience Boot Camp is designed for healthcare leaders and team members involved in patient experience improvement, communication, quality, culture, and organizational change, including:

• CEOs, COOs, and CNOs
• Patient experience leaders and improvement team members
• Nursing and department directors and s

Hi! I’m Sue Tetzlaff. I’m a culture and execution strategist for small and rural healthcare organizations - helping them to be the provider and employer-of-choice so they can keep care local and margins strong.

For decades, I’ve worked with healthcare organizations to navigate the people-side of healthcare, the part that can make or break your results. What I’ve learned is this: culture is not a soft thing. It’s the hardest thing, and it determines everything.

When you’re ready to take your culture to the next level, here are three ways I can help you:

1. Listen to the Culture Change RX Podcast
Every week, I share conversations with leaders who are transforming healthcare workplaces and strategies for keeping teams engaged, patients loyal, and margins healthy.

2. Subscribe to our Email Newsletter
Get practical tips, frameworks, and leadership tools delivered right to your inbox—plus exclusive content you won’t find on the podcast.
📩 Subscribe here

3. Break through to the next level of greatness in your organization with help from my team and me.
When you’re ready to be the provider and employer-of-choice, we’ll help you implement proven frameworks that strengthen culture, improve experience and ensure your organization thrives.
You can email me at [email protected] and put “BREAKTHROUGH” in the subject line and I’ll get you all the details.

Send us a Message

In this episode, Sue welcomes Capstone’s Co-Founder Jane McLeod, to discuss the importance of teamwork and how it can maximize momentum in an organization. Jane shares examples of fostering teamwork, such as COO Brian Rauzi's Team 90th and highlights the key elements of effective teamwork: belief, connection, and consistency. They emphasize the need for leaders to inspire belief in the team's goals, foster a sense of connectedness among team members, and consistently align teamwork with all aspects of the organization. They also discuss the benefits of teamwork, including improved patient outcomes and increased innovation. 

Episode Insights and Takeaways:

• Belief in the team's goals is essential for maximizing momentum and achieving success.
• Creating a sense of connection among team members fosters collaboration and innovation.
• Consistency in aligning teamwork with all aspects of the organization ensures sustained success.

The Virtual Patient Experience Boot Camp is designed for healthcare leaders and team members involved in patient experience improvement, communication, quality, culture, and organizational change, including:

• CEOs, COOs, and CNOs
• Patient experience leaders and improvement team members
• Nursing and department directors and s

Hi! I’m Sue Tetzlaff. I’m a culture and execution strategist for small and rural healthcare organizations - helping them to be the provider and employer-of-choice so they can keep care local and margins strong.

For decades, I’ve worked with healthcare organizations to navigate the people-side of healthcare, the part that can make or break your results. What I’ve learned is this: culture is not a soft thing. It’s the hardest thing, and it determines everything.

When you’re ready to take your culture to the next level, here are three ways I can help you:

1. Listen to the Culture Change RX Podcast
Every week, I share conversations with leaders who are transforming healthcare workplaces and strategies for keeping teams engaged, patients loyal, and margins healthy.

2. Subscribe to our Email Newsletter
Get practical tips, frameworks, and leadership tools delivered right to your inbox—plus exclusive content you won’t find on the podcast.
📩 Subscribe here

3. Break through to the next level of greatness in your organization with help from my team and me.
When you’re ready to be the provider and employer-of-choice, we’ll help you implement proven frameworks that strengthen culture, improve experience and ensure your organization thrives.
You can email me at [email protected] and put “BREAKTHROUGH” in the subject line and I’ll get you all the details.